Bhutan Day 5

After a good night's rest, I woke up and had breakfast in the downstairs restaurant at the Druk Hotel. I learned that they serve just about the best cheese omlette I'd ever had! Then Namgay showed up with Tshering the driver and another guide from Namgay Adventure Travels named Karma. He had told me about Karma before, but I didn't realize before today that he would be taking over the tour and showing me places in Punakha and Thimphu. It was kind of a nice change moving to a different guide. He's about 25 years old, and much more talkative that Namgay - although has a much thicker Indian/Asian accent, so he was bit harder to understand. So Namgay said maybe we could get together on Friday night so I could meet his wife, Dorji. Then he took off. It was kind of strange having Namgay leave and not see him for a few days - but Karma proved to be very knowledgable about Bhutan and was definately a well-suited guide. That morning we drove the ~3hr road to Punakha by way of Dochula pass at 10k ft. Unfortunately, it was very misty as we drove over the pass, so I wasn't able to get a glimpse of the Himilayan peaks. At the top there is a huge round-about with 109 stupas called the Great Victory Chortens, which serve as a reminder for the victory of the King of Bhutan against the countries enemies. They were consecrated in 2004 - so it's a fairly recent monument.

Then we ate lunch at a little tea house just on the other side of the pass. And Tshring was definately flirting with the girl servers there. It was a little hilarious.

As we were approaching Punahka, we drove up a steep road on the left side of the valley, and arrived at our destination for the next three 3 nights - the Meri Puensum Hotel. It had a great gazebo to the left where you could relax in cushioned seats while drinking tea.

And the view looking into the valley towards Punakha was sweet! These guys are sraping the roof of one of the cottages - not sure why? Some chemical build-up on the tin I guess.

Doesn't Punakha look tiny? There are about 18,000 people living in the valley though - they're all spread out. The significance of the city is that it was the Capitol of the country until 1955 and is now the Winter residency of the Chief Abbot and the Monk body.

After some tea and crackers, we drove down into the valley, past the town, and across the river to the Punakha Dzong. It is HUGE (click to enlarge).

Like the other Dzongs, it is split up into to sectors - the administrative and the religeous. You have to walk through the courtyard of the admin. sector to get to the religeous sector. Here and there in the courtyard there were monks practicing dances for the festivals of 2008 which will mark the 100th year of Bhutanese monarchy. As we were passing through a passage to the other end of the temple, we met up with an older monk who was holding a rat trap and had red residue all over his mouth from beetlenut. Karma seemed to know him and he ended up taking us to the highest point in the temple. It was a small room with an alter of Buddhas behind glass. This is where the King comes to recieve the blessing of the god of power. Karma said I could recieve the blessing too and that it was a rare thing since usually only the King was allowed up there and this Dzong was the only residency of the god of power. So the monk pulled from a chest a small box that was about the size of a book with a tiny figure inside it behind glass. The monk said a few words in his language, let me take a closer look, and then locked it right back up in the chest. It was all very strange - I figured the god of power would be huge - maybe larger than the buddha statues. We headed back through the temple and to the car. Then we took a little drive to visit the fertility temple. This one required a little walk across the valley to get to.

Part of the way up the path, we came across a bull on a rope. I tried to pet it from behind, but it noticed and reared up. It startled me. My first contact with a Bhutanese cow was not a positive one : )

We passed some houses along the way and alot of them had paintings related to fertility. This one was right by the path and Karma offered to get in the picture. Haha. I was laughing at him because he looked as amused as me.

On the way we also passed a big stupa/chorten (I never learned the difference)with prayer wheels all around it.

I asked Karma to demonstrate the technique.

The video is Here: Click on "KarmaTurningPrayerWheels.mov"

We also passed lots of cacti. I was very interested. Karma said they eat the ones with blossoms!



The fertility monastary is called the Chime Lhakhang and the fertility saint, whom they pray to there is Drukpa Kinley - otherwise known as the "Divine Madman". He is well-known and loved in Bhutan for his charismatic and unorthadox teachings and behavior. As we neared the temple we noticed a host of Bhutanese women sitting out on the grass surrounding the small temple, some of them chanting. After entering the worship room and observing the chanting, some young monks informed us that there was a local community that was hosting a 5-day worship vigil.

We returned to the hotel for a nice relaxing dinner, and went to our rooms after a bit of fellowship.

Bhutan Day 4

I woke up the next morning hearing Santosh's voice. He'd brought over a big bowl of very warm water for me to wash my face with. Immediately I took advantage of it - my face was grateful.

Then Namgay informed me that the general consensus was that the rain would continue to fall for several days between Paro and Thimpu. After a breakfast of sausage and eggs by Kinsung and a short talk with the mule-boy, we decided that it would be too miserable to continue to Thimphu. I was slightly disheartened - but there was no time for wallowing in inevitable misfortunes of the weather.

Namgay went ahead and started the hike while the others packed up camp. We hiked to the summit right near our campsite, which was called the Jele Dzong.


It's a pretty large monastery, and marked the last stop on the path (Druk Path) from Thimpu to Paro - which was the means of travel between the two towns before the road was built.

Before I left for Bhutan, Katie gave me some prayer flags to bring with me and hang up for her. So this is my honoring her request. Somehow the flags she gave me were a lot smaller than the others that were hung.


Namgay was able to make a few calls on his cell phone from the summit to arrange for us to be picked up in Paro and taken to Thimpu. He also let me call Ellen on it! It was very curious that he could get reception there.

On our way down we heard lots of sustained chirping noises all throughout the woods. Then there was one coming from trail in front of me. I bent down to see an injured cicada flapping one broken wing. Namgay came over, picked it up, said "I'll give it a little help", and threw it in the air. It took flight immediately! Then I told Namgay that Ellen would like what he'd just done. See how the wing on the right is torn?


After more hiking the rest of the party including the mules joined up with us. Then as we neared I got to talking to Santosh and soon we realized that Namgay was nowhere around. So we stopped for a bit along the trail. There was a steep drop-off on one side and I was standing near it. Well one of the mules came up to me who had all kinds of hair covering its eyes, and the thing walked right beside me and nudged me so hard I nearly fell off the edge. I stayed away from that one the rest of the time... dumb blind mule.

We arrived at the trail head and Namgay and a packed lunch while the other two unpacked the mules. Not too long after, a taxi showed up to drive us to Thimpu. We passed the airport- here's a little better picture of the building. This is the ONLY passenger building! Tiny right? I love how it's in tune with the Bhutanese architecture though.


The valley between the two towns is SO gorgeous!


They are in the process of widening this ~35 mile leg, which is only 1 lane. It was kind of treacherous because a lot of the sections were muddy, and you'd have to wait for whole strings of oncoming traffic to pass narrow spots while you waited on the shoulder. And when you were passing other cars, the road was barely wide enough; the left 2 tires would be on the dirt shoulder and you'd feel like the right rear-view mirror was gonna be shattered from the passing cars. GAH. But Tshering was an excellent driver. This shot is of an exceptionally wide road in Paro.


Some of the pavement would be laid atop machine-ground gravel. They said this was expensive to do though. Most of the workers along the side of the road were hand-breaking rocks into gravel for the road base. I couldn't believe my eyes. It seemed so primitive. Plus there were a lot of women and children too who were working. Some mothers had babies with them that they just laid on the road shoulder under an umbrella while they worked. Namgay said that many of these workers came from India because the opportunity for employment is higher for them in Bhutan. Can you imagine leaving your home country to do work like this?


2 hours of driving later, we arrived in Thimpu at the Druk Hotel. After an attendant took my bag, Namgay found the owner, Dilu, and introduced me to him. He is also the secretary of the Bhutan Rock Climbing Club.


I was pretty stoked to meet him. Dilu also had me meet Robin - one of the club members. I climbed with him later in the week.

I got to my room, took a nap, then went out onto the square in front of the hotel.


I walked around a bit and found a small barber shop and got my hair cut, face shaved and scalp messaged - all by the same fantastically skilled Indian barber. Only cost me 60 Nu, which is about $1.50. And it was much much faster than an American haircut. I think that was the first time I'd been shaved with a straight razor. It was a bit scary. He pinched my skin taut so the blade would glide smoothly over it. It made me feel like my face was made of rubber though.

I ordered some food to my room from the restaurant in the hotel and after dinner soaked in the sauna the hotel had in the basement. OOh it was great. Then I had cold shower and watched a bit of television before going to sleep.

Bhutan Day 3

The day began beautifully with the clouds slowly rising off of the mountains surrounding the Paro valley. Blue sky was our fortune for the first 30 minutes of our hike. We were driven by Tshering (it's always him) to the post office where I mailed a couple of postcards to family for 50c each - MUCH cheaper correspondance than calling. And only 2 weeks delay! :P We drove to the trailhead for the Druk Path which is just up the hill from the Museum.

There we were greeted by 2 of Namgay's staff as well as a host of asses that were supplied by a man in Paro. Each of the 5 asses were loaded with supplies. Here is the kick off pad for the trail:


Kinsung was the name of our cook (Yah, we had a cook!) and Santosh was camping assistant who was about my age. Namgay told me (in front of him) that he's still looking for a Bhutanese wife so to let him know if I see any elligibles, lol. Our hike consisted of 4 hours of inclined climbing up to a summit - then a short descent to a small clearing where our tents were already being set up for us by Santosh, who'd passed us up an hour earlier. On the way up:

Here's our campsite

We ate a pre-cooked meal and tea, then went each into our separate tents to rest. It was pouring rain at this time and when I got to my tent I realized that I had to pee but I would've gotten soaked...

Here's a little account of my struggle.



My tent rocked! The fly kept the rain out and allowed cover just outside the main zippered section for me to leave my wet boots. They had layed down a THICK pad and thermorest layer for me! Pretty much all I was responsible for bringing was a sleeping bag and a pillow. This was luxery camping!

After a short rest I walked into the "dining room" tent to find tea and cookies neatly layed out on the foldup table.

I took full advantage, of course. The rain stopped for only a couple of hours durin the whole day. But it was nice just visiting with the other three in the cooking tent while leasurely waiting for dinner. As we waited we snacked on fresh roasted cashews and Namgay gave me some of his special Bhutanese whisky made in the south by their military. Dinner was the same great food except with an addition - incredibly tasty local fried fish. I usually don't care for fish, especially when it's "fishy" tasting. But this fish we unbelievable - great seasoning, no fishyness, and fell right off the bones! Dessert was a mildly sweet coffe custard, which was excellent. After dinner, Namgay and I visited in the dining tent for a while, sipping hot chocolate and whisky to keep us warm. We talked a good bit about rock climbing. He travelled to Austria in 1995 and was trained and certified as a professional trekking/alpine guide - which included training in rock climbing. He hasn't climbed in 5 years, but he told me that he had thought about climbing the rock face directly below Taktsang. Wow, that'd be difficult. And probably prohibited. I showed Namgay a picture of me with Ellen and he said that she was very pretty. I wished that she was there to meet these wonderful people! We read some magazines that he'd brought, then went to our tents around 9:00 so we could get up early the next morning. Namgay decided that we could do the trek in 4 days instead of 5, but that meant a total of 7-8 hours of trekking for tomorrow! Yes, it was definately time to sleep.

Bhutan Day 2

I woke up at 6:00am - breakfast was ready at 7:30. After eating a small breakfast of Southern Bhutanese sweet mangoes, scrambled eggs, and ham, Tshering drove us to the nearby trail head just North of the Hotel - which was right at around 7,000 ft.


We hiked slowly up the steep 4 mile trail which leads to the majestic Taktsang Monastery - also called the Tiger's Nest, which is a very sacred temple and widely sought pilgrimage in the Himalayan world. This is a large decorated prayer wheel (of which there are many in Bhutan) situated at a lookout point along the trail. You spin it clock-wise for good luck! Some of them have a post at the top that rings a bell hanging from the ceiling.


We stopped halfway up at a tea house perched on a ledge across the ravine from Taktsang and had coffee and biscuits. This was one of the best views of the monastery and was actually the first that we were able to see it - the morning fog was just beginning to rise above it.




On the second half up we passed several prayer wheels and caves marked by Chortens that marked points of meditation of past gurus. Some of the caves didn't have buildings at their entrance, but rather were lined with small, key-chain looking, white huts called Tso Tsos (Tsuh-tsuhs). They were made of clay and sometimes ashes of gurus or other remembered monks.


The trail then narrowed onto a steep cliff that turned into a series of 600 downward steps before finally landing us at the 10k foot high place of worship.


This is where the trail turned into a waterfall to the left of Taktsang. This little building is where the caretaker(s) live.


Inside the monastery, which visitors/tourists are not ordinarily allowed, we were accompanied by one of the monk caretakers into 4 sacred rooms of worship where large Buddhas sit at the front fantastically ornamented and with offerings and incense on the table in front of them. I couldn't believe how detailed and beautiful these decorations were! I wish I could share this sight with you, but no cameras were allowed. Guards with guns took them from us. After being let into each locked room by the caretaker, one customarily folds their hands and bows prostrate 3 times before walking up to the table to make and offering of a few Ngultrum and whatever other offerings of musical instruments, food, or flowers you may want to give to the Buddha. Each offering is said to give you luck in a different area of your life as well as improve your chances of a better life after reincarnation. The caretaker then pours a bit of palm oil in your hand which you then sip and poor over your head. Adjacent to 1 of the 4 rooms is the cave where the guru Rimpuche, who established Buddhism in the country, stayed to meditate after his ride to Bhutan on a tigress and cleansed the country of it's evil spirits. Many of the places of worship have representations of Rimpuche in his smiting form the "Dorji Doloe", in which he is surrounded by fire and uses lightning bolts to subdue Bhutan's evil spirits. The main part of these Lhakhangs (temples) was burned down in a "miraculous" 1998 fire but was rebuilt I think in 2002.

After the short visitation to each of the rooms, we began our climb back down, stopping at the tea house for lunch. It was SO good. Namgay said the food there is cooked over an open fire, which gives it a smokey taste and is his favorite cooking.


There was a lone Japanese woman sitting in the far corner of the otherwise empty dining room who sat motionless with her head down, holding an equally rigid kitten the whole time I was eating. It was a bit eerie, but later Namgay walked up to her and she explained to him that the rest of her party had continued the pilgrimage without her because she didn't think she could make it all the way up.

Tshering drove us back to the hotel room when we reached the trail head and it then started to sprinkle. I slept until dinner AGAIN, then continued my slumber after an incredible meal of rice, noodles, pork, potatoes, and chillies. I had tea thi time - which tasted a bit like chai. Very soothing. After dinner I paid my phone bill from my call to Ellen. It was 1000 Nu - about $25, for just ~10 minutes on the phone! Namgay told me later that the tax was 100% for phone calls. Here's what Nu looks like.


Tomorrow we leave Namsay and Paro and begin our trek to Thimphu - the country's capitol.

Bhutan Day 1

After being picked up, we drove for 20 minutes straight to the hotel, which is just outside of Paro. The place I stayed is called the Namsay Resort. Nice accommodations - wow do they treat their guests nice.

We stopped and almost immediately the driver hopped out of the car and opened the door for me! I felt like royalty! lol. Namgay told me lunch would be served in a couple of hours, so I went to my room for some rest.

After half-sleeping for 2 hrs in my gigantic room, we went into a large room off of the main lobby of the building to eat lunch. We sat down at a large, decorated, set table and sat at either end. About 8 dishes were brought out to us to share. Red rice (grown locally), pork, thin noodles, spicy eggplant curry, fish curry in red sauce, some type of dark crispy green plant (i think fiddle head ferns), and noddles with chicken in creamy sauce. Very tasty. I think my favorite was the eggplant curry which had large green Bhutanese chillies and cheese sauce in it. The chillies have such a great flavor! They also eat them raw dipped in fine salt and eaten with rice.


After lunch we were driven by Tshering around the perimeter of the Paro valley and up a hillside to the Museum of Bhutanese History just outside of town.


(Namgay on Left)
The big round tower used to be a watch tower guarding Paro and now has many artifacts, treasures, stamps, and mainly statues and tapestries of Buddhas. The focal point of the tower was something that resembled a Christmas tree with Buddhas as ornaments. It had 4 sides which represented the 4 sects of Bhutanese Mahayana Buddhism. Namgay explained that each sect was considered the same religion - just different ways of practicing it. Just below the tower was the Paro Dzong (Temple) which is the religious and government seat for the Paro District.

Here is a view of Paro from the tower:


We were then driven back to downtown, which basically consists of a long strip of buildings with hand-painted signs over the doorways that for the most part all say "General Store - Paro Bhutan". Namgay and Tshering parked and let me browse the stores. It was sort of strange because I never knew if I would be walking into a shoe store, textile store, food store, or WHAT. I ended up finding a neat gift shop on a side street where I purchased a few items. It was a little uncomfortable walking into these shops by myself. Mostly because people aren't used to seeing tourists- especially just ONE and one so young.

I then re found the guide. We were driven back to the hotel and I hit the sac hard for about 4 hours! The receptionist had to give me a wake up call when I didn't show up for dinner at 7:00. Every day but this one I was wishing that dinner time would be earlier - but 7 - 7:30 is normal there. Dinner was just as great as lunch with white rice, whole fried potatoes, fried beef strips with peppers, chopped up spinach, locally grown apples... About halfway through the meal the waitress brought out a single skin-charred Bhutanese chilly. We ate it with salt and rice. Hottest chilly I'd ever tasted! I think Namgay was excited that he wouldn't have to hold back on spiciness in our trekking food when I told him I liked spicy foods.


I told Namgay that I was late to dinner because I decided to leave my watch at home (which was a mistake!). He said to take his and that he knew the time by his cell phone. I kept it the rest of the trip even though i tried to give it back multiple times.


After dinner I went to my room and called Ellen for a few minutes to let her know I'd arrived and was safe. Then I crashed again. I was wondering how long the jet lag was going to last! Wow.

Beggining the story of an Asian adventure

Leaving town on Thursday, the 9th of August felt strange, as my tour in the wonderful world of Bhutan was not actually to begin until the morning of August 11th. Ellen drove me to the Denver Airport early in the morning. I flew 1k miles to Seattle, 5k miles to Tokyo, 3k miles to Bangkok, and finally another 1k miles or so to Paro, Bhutan on the Druk Royal Airline. I honestly don't know how long the trip took, as I crossed the International Date Line. But it sure FELT like the 48 hours time change was an accurate accrual of lapsed time!

I actually had to spend around 8 hours in the Bangkok airport before my Druk flight left, so I was there a while. This airport is crazy HUGE. All of the seats were metal - so I didn't have a soft spot to sleep. But I did find a nice empty corner to lay my head for a few hours. The rest of the time, I took pictures.

After making a succesful pass through customs, I went straight to the gate. There were absolutely no passengers there for at least 30 mintues. Althought there were two guys from Paro at the far end who summoned me. They were both fairly young and were very talkative and were asking all about me and why I was going to Bhutan. They told me they were just about to board as flight attendants on the Paro flight. They said they had a few days off after this flight, so to give them a call and we'd hang out together. I was shocked at how open they were with me - they wrote down their cell numbers and email addresses and said "Seriously - don't forget to call us when you get to Paro-town; we'll go to a discotech or something."

I boarded the Airbus plane in the dark walking onto it from the tarmac. It was wonderful to see the sunrise as we headed North. They stopped the plane in Calcutta, India for more passengers to board, then we continued. I later heard that it's not uncommon to see monkeys on the runway in Calcutta. They like to steal the luggage from the workers. Shortly after being served breakfast, I suddenly spotted very large hills appearing in the distance. India is very flat right up to the border of Bhutan - then BAM you get Himalayas. This is when i first saw Bhutan:

After weaving through a few giant hilltop (and coming quite close to them indeed!), we landed in the Paro Valley. After stepping off the plane and looking around for a few minutes, it felt like we passengers were the only ones in the region. There were no officials prodding you on to the arrival gate; it was just you and the mountains.

I walked in the airport building and there were just 2 short lines - one for Nationals and one for tourists. You're either one or the other. When I got to the window, the man asked where my card (for customs) was. -.- I said I didn't recieve one. Plus the Bhutanese sitting next to me on the flight told me it was only necessary for nationals to fill them out. They must've gotten their English a bit confused. Hah. So after getting my bag, I walked out of the building and immediately saw Namgay- my tour guide standing to greet me. He was easy to pick out for 2 reasons. I'd seen him in pictures from my sister-in-law's trip and he's just about the tallest Bhutanese man alive. He was only an inch or so taller than me, but most men are alot shorter.

He then took me to his touring car - well one of them anyway. And I met Tshering, who was to be my driver for the rest of the trip. It was great having someone else drive because that way the tour guide could concentrate on talking... the roads are so dangerous that it's much better if when you're driving your mind is only on the road. And my tour began...

Stay tuned for the next several days - I'll be telling how it happened.